Pulling The Plug On A Contract

September 16, 1995

Breaking a monthlong silence on the subject, Gov. John G. Rowland recently ordered the rebidding of a lucrative contract that the Department of Economic Development had awarded to a firm owned by its acting commissioner.

Mr. Rowland said he intervened to avoid the appearance of impropriety and not because acting agency head Arthur H. Diedrick had been guilty of any transgression.

Mr. Rowland did the right thing, and for exactly the right reason. Other than Tom Scott, the chairman of the Connecticut Taxpayers Committee who filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission, no one has suggested Mr. Diedrick broke the law or unduly influenced the bid selection.

But what's at stake here is the public trust. It looks as though administration officials are lining their pockets with taxpayer money when companies they run are given state business.

Connecticut Magazine, which is owned by Mr. Diedrick, should not have been awarded the $292,000 contract to publish the 1996 and 1997 Connecticut Vacation Guide, even though Mr. Diedrick, who now directs the Connecticut Development Authority, distanced himself from the bid process.

Mr. Rowland said he will ask Mr. Diedrick to refrain from bidding the second time around. Yet, Mr. Rowland couldn't refrain from taking a poke at state ethics officials, accusing them of perpetrating ``a Monday-morning bag job.''

The governor is off the mark in his criticism. It's true that ethics officials had given Mr. Diedrick and his company the green light to bid on the printing contract. It's also true that they assured him that there was nothing in the ethics code forbidding such an arrangement. But that doesn't mean the law is infallible and shouldn't be changed when it's shown to be inadequate.

Alan S. Plofsky, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, acknowledged as much. Mr. Plofsky said the commission will submit a proposal to the 1996 General Assembly that would close a loophole in the ethics code by prohibiting all commissioners, their immediate family members and their firms from contracting to do business with their agencies.